Homeless man returns suitcase stuffed with cash and then asks for crowd-funded reward to be given to charity

A homeless man in Canada, who turned in a suitcase stuffed with cash to police, has refused money that was donated to him by well-wishers across the globe and asked for it to be given to charity instead.

The man, who is in his 60s and has asked not to be identified, returned the suitcase to police in mid-June.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Langford, on southern Vancouver Island, were so impressed with the man that they spent time searching for him while they were off-duty.

"This is an incredible display of honesty and selflessness," RCMP spokesman Const Alex Berube told CBC on June 15.

Mike Kelly, the founder and social media director of Greater Victoria and Vancouver news website Victoria Buzz, set up a GoFundMe page aiming to raise CAD$2400 (AUD$2497) for the man - the amount of money that was returned.

However, when informed of the money that had been crowd-funded on his behalf, the homeless man refused the funds and instead said that all he wanted was a job.

Police officers asked the man to take a night to decide whether he was serious about donating all the money.